NewsWrap
for the week ending March 6th, 1999
(As broadcast on This Way Out program #571, distributed 3-08-99)
[Compiled & written by Cindy Friedman, with thanks to
Graham Underhill, Brian Nunes, Jason Lin, Martin Rice, Rex Wockner,
Chris Ambidge, Greg Gordon & Lucia Chappelle]
Anchored by Leo Garcia and Cindy Friedman
The murder of a gay man in Alabama is drawing widespread attention from the
U.S. national media. Coosa County Sheriffs say that both Charles Butler,
Junior and Steven Mullins have confessed that they killed Billy Jack Gaither
because he was gay. Although they say that Gaither had made sexual advances
toward them -- something his acquaintances find unlikely -- they did not react
immediately, but spent the next two weeks planning their assault. They called
Gaither and arranged for him to pick them up in his car. They took him to an
isolated spot where they beat him and stuffed him into the trunk of his own
car. They then drove him to another remote area, took him out of the trunk,
bludgeoned him to death with a wooden ax handle, and burned his body with two
kerosene-soaked car tires.
President Bill Clinton issued a statement expressing his outrage and grief at
"this heinous and cowardly crime [that] touches the conscience of our
country," and called again for passage of the Hate Crimes Prevention Act.
Tracey Conaty of the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force told This Way Out:
Tracey Conaty: “This murder of Billy Jack Gaither, the murder of Matthew
Shepard in Wyoming, and the racist murder of Mr. James Byrd in Jasper, Texas
are not isolated incidents. These hate crimes do not happen in a vacuum.
They happen in a society in which people are taught to devalue and dehumanize
entire groups of people. Gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered people are
not equal in this society, we are still second class citizens, and that is
part of the reason why hate crimes happen ... Discrimination and hatred are
part of the same continuum, and the right-wing is responsible for fostering a
climate in which hate crimes can occur. We want them to stop their
unrelenting attacks, for political and financial gain, against gay, lesbian,
bisexual and transgendered people and other minority groups.”
Currently, Alabama's hate crimes law does not include crimes against gays and
lesbians, although a bill to change that was introduced in the wake of the
widely-reported October bashing murder of Matthew Shepard.
In Wyoming, where Shepard was attacked, the last vestige of a slew of hate
crimes bills was killed this week. While a half-dozen measures for stronger
sentences for bias-motivated crimes had already been defeated, a bill to
establish a task force to study hate crimes and how to prevent them had passed
the state House. But Republican Majority Leader Hank Coe kept the bill off
the Senate floor because he felt it had nothing to add to the current
statistical reporting by the state Attorney General.
In New Mexico, Republican Governor Gary Johnson this week vetoed a hate
crimes bill, the second time he's done so. New Mexico was the only Western
U.S. state whose legislature approved a hate crimes bill this year.
In California, a bill to help protect students in public schools from
harassment and discrimination is being opposed by a major media campaign.
Professional homophobe Lou Sheldon's Traditional Values Coalition is
reportedly spending $25,000 to place ads opposing the bill, which are now
running on eight Christian radio stations in five markets. The ads are wildly
inaccurate. For example, they include allegations that the bill would require
hiring quotas for gay and lesbian instructors at private religious schools,
when the bill in fact has nothing whatever to do with hiring or with private
schools. The bill to add sexual orientation as a protected category under the
state Education Code's student anti-discrimination provisions was introduced
by openly lesbian state Assemblymember Sheila Kuehl.
China's first gay and lesbian campus group only won official recognition
last month, but it's already experiencing backlash. A student group
describing itself as an "alliance to protect ethics" has been putting up
posters protesting the Chinese University's Tongzhi Culture Society. The
protesters have also been throwing out the Society's monthly magazine. One
poster said, "We found the magazines dirty and meaningless, and they
encouraged insane homosexuality and sex abuse. These seriously affect the
psychological health of people." The Tongzhi Culture Society's first campus
event, a discussion forum held this week, featured calls for tolerance and
freedom of expression.
Gay Moroccan Muhammed Choukri's noted autobiographical novel, "Plain Bread",
has been dropped from the curriculum of the American University of Cairo.
Choukri's book was cited for "indecency" because of its descriptions of his
homosexual experiences. Although the university is privately-run, the
withdrawal was announced to the parliament this week by Egypt's minister of
higher education Mufid Shihab. Shihab said that, "Egypt allows free thinking
but rejects violations of its values and traditions."
The British government's bill to lower the age of consent for sex between
men from 18 to 16 was approved for the third and final time by the House of
Commons this week by a vote of 281 - 82. The bill now moves to the House of
Lords, which is expected to reject equalizing the gay male age of consent with
that for heterosexuals, as it did last year. Conservatives who seem to
believe the law will make a difference in who does or does not grow up to be
gay are not satisfied by the biggest change from last year's bill, the
creation of an "abuse of trust" offense designed to protect 16- and 17-year-
olds from the advances of adults in positions of authority over them.
However, this year the government has promised to use the Parliament Act to
override the Lords if necessary.
The United Kingdom is planning for the first time to include a count of
same-gender couples in its next census, which will be held in 2001. Couples
will be able to select among "married," "unrelated" and "partners" to describe
themselves. In data analysis, those who respond as "partners" will be further
analyzed to count gay and lesbian couples. Martin Walker of the gay and
lesbian lobby group Stonewall said, "We have been fighting for years for
homosexual relationships to be recognized because we are fed up when forms
just offer the choice of marriage or heterosexual couples."
Gay taunts led to violence in a British professional soccer match this week,
and both parties involved are facing misconduct charges from the Football
Association. Liverpool striker Robbie Fowler was using both words and
gestures throughout the game implying that Chelsea defender Graeme Le Saux is
gay. When Le Saux tried to complain to officials, he was himself warned for
wasting time. Le Saux elbowed Fowler in the head and knocked him down while
referees' attention was elsewhere. Gay taunts are something Le Saux has
experienced throughout his career from opponents, fans and even teammates,
apparently because his tastes are more intellectual than the stereotypical
working class soccer pro.
Transgender Thai kickboxer Parinya Kiatbusaba announced this week that he's
ready to retire from the sport and undergo sex reassignment surgery. It was
only a year ago that Parinya made his big-league debut in Bangkok, where he
knocked out his opponent while wearing full makeup and pink nail polish. He
went on to gather fans all over Asia and was even invited to Japan. Once
Parinya has become physically female, he hopes to make a career in show
business, preferably as a folk singer.
Singer Dusty Springfield, bisexual herself and a favorite of many gays and
lesbians, died of breast cancer this week at the age of 59. The versatile
British-born singer known as the "White Queen of Soul" had a string of 17 hit
singles in the 1960's, including "Son of a Preacher Man" which was recently
revived in the film "Pulp Fiction". After a period of relative obscurity,
Springfield had a revival of her own in 1987 when the Pet Shop Boys
collaborated with her on "What Have I Done to Deserve This". Springfield had
just been made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire and was about to
be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Also dying of cancer this week, at the age of 74, was José Quintero, the
two-time Tony-award-winning director credited with reviving the works of
Eugene O'Neill in the 1950's and all but inventing off-Broadway theater. He's
survived by his long-time partner Nick Tsacriosa. Quintero won his first Tony
for the 1956 premiere of "Long Day's Journey Into Night", and his second for
the 1973 production of "A Moon for the Misbegotten". He was one of a group of
young artists who in 1951 founded Greenwich Village's legendary Circle in the
Square theater.
And Harry Blackmun, U.S. Supreme Court Justice from 1970 - 1994, also died
this week, at the age of 90. Although best-known for crafting the 1973
majority opinion in the key abortion rights case "Roe v. Wade," Blackmun was
also a dissenter in the high court's landmark ruling on sodomy laws, in the
1986 "Bowers v. Hardwick" case. While the majority affirmed the states' right
to criminalize private non-commercial sexual conduct between consenting
adults, Blackmun chided his colleagues for their knee-jerk homophobia. He
wrote that the fact that "individuals define themselves in a significant way
through their intimate sexual relationships with others suggests, in a nation
as diverse as ours, that there may be many 'right' ways of conducting those
relationships." Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund Executive Director
Kevin Cathcart said that, "Justice Blackmun's eloquent dissent in 'Hardwick'
set the standard for constitutional analysis of lesbian and gay civil rights.
His words gave us hope that someday we would find justice in the Supreme
Court."